Heather > Recent Status Updates

DNF at 36%. This book is fine, but I don’t want to read another three star book right now.

DNF
There’s nothing wrong with this book, but it feels like a three star book. I’d rather DNF and pick up something I might love instead.

My daughter has been begging me to read this.

David J. Schow, Walk on Gilded Splinters

I like the take on religion and how the events of The Stand would be remembered. I can appreciate what the author was doing here, but I didn’t enjoy it.

2.5 stars

Nat Cassidy, The Unfortunate Convalescence of the Superlawyer

This one is for Dark Tower fans.

4.5 stars

Sarah Langan, The Devil’s Children

Two generations after Captain Tripps there are survivors who have been hiding out this whole time. They are not the immune. Instead, they have chosen to stay sequestered and careful, but the immune are starting to break the treaty.

4 stars

Catherynne M. Valente, Came the Last Night of Sadness

See my previous update.

Premee Mohamed, Hunted to Extinction

I might need to reread this one…

2 stars?

Chuck Wendig, Grand Junction

This one takes place many years after The Stand. We follow a teenage boy who has been asked to help out the town leader. I loved the last few pages.

4 stars

Somer Canon, Awaiting Orders in Flaggston

This story takes place a year after the showdown in Vegas. It follows a group of people who managed to get away before Vegas was destroyed and a 12-year-old girl who never had dreams about Mother Abigail and Flagg.

3.5 stars

Ronald Malfi, He’s a Righteous Man

This one was wild. I did not see that ending coming.

4.5 stars

Wayne Brady and Maurice Broaddus, Abigail’s Gethsemane

I loved following a familiar character, Mother Abigail. We learned more about her through a flashback to 1919 and getting into her head during the time she left Boulder to reconnect with God.

4.5 stars

Usman T. Malik, The Mosque at the End of the World

Loved following Muslim characters in Pakistan and seeing how the superflu affected them.

4 stars

Paul Tremblay, The Story I Tell Is the Story of Some of Us

I hate this. It’s written in second person, which I thought was interesting at first. Ten pages in though, and I can’t do it anymore.

DNF

Tananarive Due & Steven Barnes, The Boat Man

A thirteen year old girl and a ten year old boy from Key West try to convince “the boat man” to take them to the mainland. I’ve loved previous Due books, but this was just okay.

3 stars

V. Castro, Across the Pond

I don’t care about anything that’s happening.

DNF

Rio Youers, Keep the Devil Down

This story was a car chase across Arizona with flashbacks.

4 stars

S.A. Cosby, The Legion of Swine

Of course I loved this one. Cosby can do no wrong in my eyes. A man alone on his farm with his pigs deals with three strangers that arrive.

“Sometimes hope was just a life raft in the middle of a hurricane, but it was better than drowning.”

4.5 stars

Cynthia Pelayo, Milagros

Set in Puerto Rico, this follows a young girl alone except for her pet chicken as she tries to figure out how to get to Nebraska as hordes of crows follow her.

4 stars

Josh Malerman, I Love the Dead

I’ve read The Stand many, many times, but I never knew Captain Trips was Jerry Garcia’s nickname.

3 stars

Alma Katsu, Make Your Own Way

This one follows a teenager by herself on a farm when a young man shows up.

4 stars

Michael Koryta, Kovach’s Last Case

I enjoyed this story about a retired detective who decides to look into a serial killer in his town.

4 stars

Poppy Z. Brite, Till Human Voices Wake Us, and We Drown

This was wild. I didn’t expect a mermaid story in this collection.

4 stars?, another author I want to read more from

Catriona Ward, The African Painted Dog

Points for the most unique story in this collection. We get the perspective of a painted dog.

3.5 stars

Alex Segura, La Mala Hora

This one was interesting. I like that La Mala Hora can represent “the bad hour” but also a dark figure, aka Randall Flagg.

“This world…had been fucked up long before Captain Trips. Long before the virus decimated us. A world full of corruption, lacking empathy, hope, and sincerity.”

4 stars

Richard Chizmar, Moving Day

Not much happened in this one, but I do enjoy Chizmar’s writing. I loved the inclusion of Baby, Can You Dig Your Man.

3.75 stars

Tim Lebbon, Grace

Imagine being on a space station when Captain Trips hits. That’s what this story is, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

4.5 stars, another author I’d like to read more from

Hailey Piper, Prey Instinct

I didn’t like this one. I literally fell asleep while reading it.

2 stars

C. Robert Cargill, Wrong Fucking Place, Wrong Fucking Time

This was fun. Two good ole boys from small town Texas meet up to drink beer and watch horror movies every night after spending their days cleaning up the dead bodies around town. I liked the commentary on horror movies in this one.

4.5 stars & I will definitely read more from this author